For new a generation, a new play based on Anne Frank's diary

AMSTERDAM – Seeking to engage a new generation with the tragic story of Anne Frank, a major new play based on the Jewish teenager's diary opens Thursday in Amsterdam.

It's the first time a theatrical production has been forged directly from Frank's actual writings since the award-winning 1950s play that escalated her story — then little-known — to the world's attention.

With the blessings of the charity that owns the copyright to the diary, "Anne" uses Frank's own words, including some passages excluded from the originally published diary critical of her parents.

It's being staged in a purpose-built 1,100 seat theater that includes a replica of the secret apartment where Frank and her family hid from the Nazis in World War II.